David Tebbs - Mentor, Director and Chairman

Non-executive Director (NED), Independent
Director and Chairman roles

With twenty + years
experience as a CEO / Executive Chairman and leading consulting companies it was
not surprising that the last 20 years work as a non executive director and as an
independent
chairman have naturally led to David also addressing requirements that are
better served as a Mentor rather than as a NED; alongside his many contributions as
a NED or chairman. As a Director he has had substantial experience
of international operations across some 50 counties and he has held board roles
in companies located in 8 counties, in 4 continents. Fuller details on his
experience can be
seen at David Tebbs .

The role of a
non-executive / independent Ė director or chairman Ė has many facets from
strategic debate, through board decision making, helping the executives, to
meeting the requirements of corporate governance. In some cases there
needs to be more emphasis on helping the executives and others in developing
individuals or dealing with the investors. Every director has a
responsibility to all the shareholders. While this sometimes needs to be
emphasised in decision making, the core role of a NED is to help the company set
and execute an appropriate strategy (or set of strategies) working with and
though the executives. Corporate governance is important both because its
part of the rules by which we run business and those intrinsic parts that
contribute to effective business direction. As a non executive director
David has filled roles as Chairman, Senior Non-executive Director, and Chairman
of Audit, Remuneration and Nomination committees. David's experience as a
NED in public companies led him to recognise the need for easier networking for
chairmen and independent directors in the technology /media sector. Based
on this he founded the ITNEA the association for NEDs and chairmen in listed TMT and related companies.

On occasions the
company is well served by its board yet the CEO, Chairman or a director needs advice and guidance in
pursuing his role that is separated from the roles of the other directors. Over
recent years this has been developed and more formalised by companies such as
Merryck & Co (who address the mentoring needs of larger company CEOs and
the CEOs of large subsidiaries). David
was a member of Merryck & Co's UK advisory board.

However size of
operation does not impact the needs that lead to CEO / Chairman mentoring and
coaching. Davidís
specific mentoring based projects have been applied more in medium-small listed and
in un listed companies. The need is the same yet the scale may be different. The
essential difference between mentoring in this context and consulting is that
the focus is on helping an individual develop and address the issues facing him
or her and the business, rather than recommending the solution. Itís a one on one relationship based on mutual activity,
discussion and trust. It is not the consultant developing recommendations, which
is another solution to
a similar but different need. Nor is it a fellow director or chairman advising with conflicts of interest between the
board role and that of mentor.

In practical terms
mentoring assignments may start clearly as such and on other occasions they
develop from a different brief. Indeed many chairmen include mentoring the CEO
and other directors
as part of their role. However there is a clear difference in a relationship
where the chairman (with all that that means) is constructively guiding and
mentoring a CEO , executive or non executive director and that of an independent mentor providing that service.
In the latter case the individual is the client and his/her needs and rights to
confidentiality come before
that of the company, even though the fees are usually met by the company.

On one occasion
David was invited to visit a company by its chairman with view to
joining board. After early discussions David proposed that the
business needs were best met met by him becoming a mentor to the
chairman and also occasional advisor to the board. {Success was
achieved by the team turning a downhill performance into a turnaround
and successful trade sale}.

David Tebbs provides his service as an mentor to medium and smaller businesses through David
Tebbs Associates serving either as an independent mentor or mentoring in a
corporate context.

SMEs and Start Ups

SME's and start ups have similar
needs for NED and mentoring support but have much more limited budgets.
David has found ways of meeting both needs by serving in thinner slices
of time and on occasions evolving the roll as the business grows either
as mentor or as a consultant / director. An full example of evolution
saw initial support on a mentor brief including board attendance,
evolving to a director and later as a chairman through to a listing via
reverse takeover. This path was pre planned from the first assignment
with role changed dependent on progression in the business. Today he
regularly supports small businesses along side his larger company
practice. DTA Associates assist in such projects

Marketing Web Sites

Experience on the board of a range of
companies drew David's attention to the importance of integrating the business
objectives of marketing a company's web site with the practical and technical
management of the site. The experience of his dialogues at board level and
practical work with and as web masters was collated into a paper on
Marketing Web Sites - a board
perspective